A thumbs down from Tuna. Scoop
originally gave a thumb down, but finds that his thumb is now creeping
upward. You'll probably like it if you are a male of student age.

Scoop's comments in white:

Jason Biggs appears for about the
zillionth consecutive time as the sincere but socially inept young
man. This time he is so desperate for a girlfriend that he puts up
with the all-time queen bitch because she is beautiful.

His loser friends
(Steve Zahn and Jack Black) see the predicament the naive Biggs is
putting himself in, and devise a plan to rescue him. They kidnap the
queen bitch (Amanda Peet), fake her death, and reintroduce Biggs to
the great true love of his life in the form of his high school
sweetheart. Unfortunately, she is about to take her final vows to
become a nun. Along the way to the end of the movie, there is a crazed
coach from their high school, and some other oddball crap that isn't
very funny. It's mostly recycled Three Stooges material, as modified
slightly for loser guys who act like stoners.

NUDITY REPORT

Amanda Detmer
shows part of her breasts (brief nipple-peeks) and buns

Odessa Munroe
and Tracy Trueman play two hookers, and are topless throughout
a lengthy scene.

Zahn and Black are funny
guys, but the script gives them no discipline, no context in which to
ply their trade. They basically got a camera shoved in their faces and
marching orders to act as stupid and as frantic as possible.

I did think one thing about it was
pretty funny. The three losers all worship Neil Diamond. They have a
band called Diamonds in the Rough in which all three of them pretend
to be 70's-era Neil, and the real Neil makes several appearances in
the film, including a final appearance as the deus ex machina who gets
the true lovers back together, then leads them through an entertaining romp singing with
the cast over the final credits (ala There's Something About Mary)

I watched this with my wife and
daughter. We represent three radically different perspectives, but all
three of us loved American Pie, so we figured this might have the same
sort of appeal. It didn't. A lot of it was mean-spirited sexual
politics ala Whipped, and the cast was generally wasted. I liked it
the best of the three of us, because I have to love any film that
spends its entire running time making fun of Neil Diamond, and even
gets Neil to participate. Unfortunately, Elya migrated from Russia in
the late 80's, and Katya is 15, so they really didn't get the Neil
Diamond humor at all and, absent that, there wasn't much else to laugh
at. In fact, Elya watched for a while, then asked me if it was supposed to be a comedy, which
gives you an indication of just how heavy-handed was the portrayal of
the evil bitch Amanda Peet character.

The film is clearly marketed at young
male audiences, and it succeeds with that target group. People under
18 score it 6.8 at IMDb, compared to a maximum of 5.4 from all other
demographic groups.

The film has two brilliant moments,
both in the final five minutes:

Neil Diamond reunites the true
lovers, which leaves the Bitch Goddess alone at the altar. She asks,
"where is MY special someone?" Steve Zahn appears, singing a Diamond song to her. They run toward each
other's arms. The romantic music swells. At the last minute, Bitch Goddess grabs a folding chair
from the outdoor wedding arrangement, and clobbers Zahn with it,
screaming, "YOU! You ruined my life".

You just have to have some love for
a film where R. Lee Ermey, the heartless drill sergeant from Full
Metal Jacket, is gay, is dressed up in glittery disco clothing, and is
dancing along to 70s music under the disco ball. He is one funky
monkey. (Surprisingly, he's actually quite a funny guy!)

Start with Ruthless
People, but replace Bette Midler with Amanda Peet, the poodle with a
raccoon, and the clown suit with a chicken suit. Add a Something About
Mary sweetheart played by Amanda Detmer, and some Wayne's World type
stupid doper losers. Now remove anything that seems funny, and replace
it with Neil Diamond and two topless hookers, and you have Saving
Silverman. I have to admit I laughed a couple of times, and the DVD
was a joy to work with (well lit, saturated colors, no graininess),
but this film is mostly dull as dishwater. I have to award extra
points for the designer of the bra Peet wore under a white dress cut
in front to her navel. It not only held her breasts in place, but hid
any chance of a nipple slip.

Detmer was charming, and I would like to see her with more to work
with in terms of a script. (Scoop
notes: I agree in the sense that she's as cute as a button, but she
turns 32 years old this month, and I don't know how much more mileage
she can get out of playing this type of character.)
I had the feeling that this was almost a movie, and could have been a
decent teen comedy with better writing.

The
Critics Vote

General consensus: no consensus, but two
stars was about the average. Ebert 0.5/4, Berardinelli 3/4,
Apollo 78. Ostensibly, Roger Ebert differed
significantly from the other two, but that is misleading.
Most critics hated the film, Berardinelli and Apollo were
two rare exceptions.

With their
votes ... IMDB summary: IMDb voters score it 5.4, but
it plays very well with teenage audiences, scoring 6.8 from
voters under 18.

With their
dollars ... it opened fairly strong with a seven million
dollar weekend, but word of mouth wasn't good, and it
maxed out at $19 million, compared to a $22 million
budget.

IMDb
guideline: 7.5 usually indicates a level of
excellence, about like three and a half stars
from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm
watchability, about like two and a half stars
from the critics. The fives are generally not
worthwhile unless they are really your kind of
material, about like two stars from the critics.
Films under five are generally awful even if you
like that kind of film, equivalent to about one
and a half stars from the critics or less,
depending on just how far below five the rating
is.

My own
guideline: A means the movie is so good it
will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not
good enough to win you over if you hate the
genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an
open mind about this type of film. C means it will only
appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover
appeal. D means you'll hate it even if you
like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if
you love the genre. F means that the film is not only
unappealing across-the-board, but technically
inept as well.

Based on this
description, this film is a C-. A few funny moments and plenty
of Neil Diamond mockery almost redeem this below-average raunchy
comedy aimed at the very young male market.